The love of my life and the Biltmore

Chad and I have been together for almost 6 years now. People look at us as a married couple and have looked at us that way for a long time. We don't really fight to speak of, we live together(for 2 years) and we have been sharing our assets for a long time. But I don't look at us as an old married couple. Our relationship is full of so many wonderful surprises that most relationships don't have. He still gives me butterflies and he still does those little things that make me fall in love all over again. The other day I was studying rather hard and I don't think I had gotten out of the chair I was sitting in for 2 hours. When he got home from work, he made me hot cider and brought me homemade vegetable soup. It meant everything to me. I love those days when he brings home flowers for no reason or just decides spur of the moment he wants to take me out. The busy life I have, he seems to do all the right things to keep me sane. I think we were meant to be.
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Saturday was not a good day for me. I had been looking forward to it for a while and all of the ends just didn't meet. Chad's parents cancelled due to illness and his brother and sister-in-law didn't come either so I was bummed. I feel like I have to work extra hard around them and when they didn't show up it made me feel inadequate to some extent (I understand their reasons but even still). Everything ended up fine, just that initial burn bothered me. We had a great time at the Renaissance Festival, we laughed, a lot, and he just kept reminding me of our little secret and it kept me upbeat and happy. It's the little things he does that mean the most to me. Like the wonderful day he gave me at the Biltmore.

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On Monday we went to the Biltmore house, and we had a blast. People keep reminding me of the rain, but Chad and I weren't bothered by the rain at all. We still hiked, saw everything we wanted to see, and did everything we wanted to do. And even though I didn't get nice sunny pictures of the mountains... When God closes a door he always opens a window, even though it was raining God still gave me great photos. This is the first time we have been able to come in warm weather, but guess what? It was in the high 40s. I think that's colder than when we went in the spring. It was wonderful. We didn't venture from the actual Biltmore property this time, we explored everything around the house. My favorite part of this trip was being able to see the four new rooms that opened. My favorite was the Nursery. It was beautiful and the coolest thing about it was they had a whole floor sitting area showing you how they went about restoring everything. I have to say I don't think I will ever get tired of the Biltmore, and we only have to travel 2 hours to get there. There were people from Wisconsin, Texas, Minnesota, New Jersey. And it is basically sitting in our backyard. We should all be happy, having such a place in the state we live in.

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Now that the Biltmore has become so popular you have to make reservations to get in the house. You have to pick a date and time, and a lot of times there aren't times available on dates you chose. But thankfully there was a 9 o'clock available for us when I made reservations. We went through the house in about 2 hours. We don't usually eat at the "Stable Cafe" but this time we decided it was a must. Most people think it's too expensive but the price was comparable to eating at a place like Olive Garden. Not too bad. We filled our bellies, Chad had a beer specially brewed for Biltmore and I bet you can guess, he loved it.

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Once we were full we started out on our journey around the estate. We were the only brave ones. But good thing because no one obstructed the view from my camera. Everything was so pretty despite the rain. We hiked to the bass pond this time. Chad wished he had his pole with him, but I think it is restricted anyways. We were able to get at least one good picture of us. I was hoping for some engagement pictures but the weather didn't cooperate. Can you see the flower Chad picked for me? It's in my hair, a pretty pink rose. That was probably illegal, but it's the thought that counts. One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing the Italian water gardens. Last time we were there they were working on them. This time they were blooming and full of life. I got some great photos of koi. Chad wants to frame a few for our bedroom. You can see the raindrops on the water, pretty neat. This was one of my favorite photo opportunities. I've told Chad for many years that when we buy our first house I want to put in a Koi pond. I guess we just have to buy a house first.

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Our day together was wonderful. It worked out since it was fall break and Chad's vacation days just got renewed. I think he has almost 4 weeks of vacation days now, so one day wouldn't hurt. The rest we will probably use for our wedding and our honeymoon. We're probably going back to Biltmore for Christmas too (by the way they were putting up Christmas trees while we were there, the fake ones). We're probably just going to buy a season pass this time, that way we can go whenever we want for a year, for free basically. We're going to do the Segway tour next time too, in hopes of better weather. It was a fun journey as it always is, and it was even better having my soul mate by my side.